The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad Movie Review
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 animated package film which is Disney’s 11th feature film and easily the finest of all package movies.
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“I’m telling you, brother,
it’s a frightful sight for what goes on Halloween night“
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It consists of just two stories – The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The choice to reduce the number to only two segments is excellent. Yes, the two still have absolutely nothing in common, but this decision allowed for greater running time, stronger characterization and much better storytelling. And they chose two absolute classics of British and American literature which helps a lot.
The Wind in the Willows is the worse of the two segments, but it is nonetheless a blast to watch, quite amusing. The story is hard to sum up, but it consists of a bunch of anthropomorphized animals, a robbery and the central character Mr. Toad is obsessed with fads, first with a car, and with a plane at the end of the film. I loved the ending the most here as it was a funny way to end the story, but the prison scene is also very memorable as is the final prolonged chase scene in the mansion which was so well executed in action.
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J. Thaddeus Toad is such a great, classic character. He isn’t too much developed as he remains a mystery a bit, but that only led to him being more fascinating. He’s a relatable character as many of us know or are themselves obsessed with growing fads so he represents those people so well and thus the movie becomes rather timeless in quality. He’s so much fun and particularly well designed.
Angus MacBadger is wonderful too and of course Moley and Ratty are a great duo. These four are such great friends and their friendship was so well utilized here. I found the villains great too and quite memorable. The voice acting is so terrific and suitably British leading to a very faithful in style and tone adaptation. I don’t want to forget about Cyril Proudbottom who is hilarious to watch, a perfect sidekick for Toad, and he probably influenced Maximus from ‘Tangled’. His interactions with Toad are amusing and probably the best part of the segment.
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the better segment and the one which propels this film entirely to the higher class among both package films and Disney films in general. There is a lot to like here, but first the bad stuff. The mood of the film is a bit jarring – the first half is lighter, but the second is very dark, especially for children. And I found the narration particularly overwhelming here, but more on that later. Those things do not diminish the film’s impact which is vast.
The characters are wonderfully realized resulting in the best character development in all of package films. Ichabod is another excellent mute character, his animation design is perfect and his complexity is evident – he is neither a villain nor a hero, but rather an antihero of sorts. He is one of the best aspects in the film, along with the music. Disney has simply never created a more intriguing, mysterious, different and unique character than always fascinating Ichabod Crane.
Katrina is unfortunately just a pretty face with no real characterization to her at all, but the film did not need her as it is all about Ichabod and Brom Bones who is simply a fantastic villain/rival of sorts who’s dashing, competent and very smart. He definitely was such a great presence in this film that he obviously influenced Gaston in ‘Beauty and the Beast’. I just loved how this story focused mostly just on these two characters and thus they ended up being excellently developed, strong rivals.
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This is admittedly one of the strangest and most intriguing tales in the Disney canon. The arrival is great, the characterization is excellent, the tavern scene is one of the highlights and of course the finale. Yes, the ending is just outstanding. The atmosphere is incredibly creepy, the action sequence is fantastic, the animation is surreal and fittingly dark, resulting in the perfect conclusion of the film and one of the absolute darkest scenes in Disney Animation history. The whole plot is an interesting mix of genres and a one of a kind experience.
Yes, I did find the narration in both of these stories overwhelming as I usually do for I am not a fan of this plot device at all. I did find it a bit more troublesome for the first segment as it made the film too similar to the book, but there is no denying the power of Basil Rathbone’s voice and he narrated the story so well. The same goes for Bing Crosby who made The Legend of Sleepy Hollow his own thanks to a charming, endearing narration and particularly great singing as he was an amazing singer first and foremost.
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Now is the perfect time to talk about the soundtrack which is one of the studio’s most shamelessly underrated. It is absolutely fantastic and a welcome return to form for the studio after previous lackluster films. The score is excellent, but the songs are outstanding. Merrily on Our Way (to Nowhere in Particular) is the only song from Wind in the Willows and although short and somewhat forgettable, it’s still fun, catchy and pleasantly reminding me of ‘Alice in Wonderland’s songs. Katrina is a bit weak though and the only number which I found rather mediocre here.
The Headless Horseman is very catchy and with a ghostly feeling to it, not to mention how it fits the story and how it participates in the story’s path, like all classic songs are supposed to do. It’s phenomenally sung by Bing Crosby who has such a great voice and it’s an immensely catchy, but still different sounding Disney song.
Ichabod is also a strong song, which is quite catchy, humorous and unfortunately incredibly underrated and short in length. It introduces us with the central character perfectly and how he does not fit at all in this new environment and the villagers’ evident baffling interest in him. It has endearing singing from Bing Crosby, it’s amusingly written and a lot of good, old-fashioned fun.
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Both of those songs are incredibly catchy, memorable and highly underrated. The pacing I also found very strong and the segments fly by how fun they are, though again they are not well connected at all. The animation is terrific and probably the best from this era thanks to actually interesting, original character designs and effective, so well animated backgrounds and action scenes. It truly is the best of the package films by far as it’s miles better from ‘The Three Caballeros’ and ‘Fun and Fancy Free’ and infinitely better than the other three. It is an underappreciated gem that should belong in the studio’s 20 best films list.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is easily Disney’s finest package film and one of the studio’s most underappreciated gems that should belong on any top 20 Disney lists. The stories do not share much in common and the narration can be overwhelming, but The Wind in the Willows is a perfectly adapted, charming and fun story and of course The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the highlight with its unforgettable story, intriguing characters and an immensely dark, atmospheric ending. The animation is also terrific as is the underrated soundtrack consisting of a couple of wonderful songs by the great Bing Crosby.
